publicrealm
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@ctesiphon wrote:
Sadly, I fear the Dublin equivalents will go the same way. I consider myself lucky if I get a year out my deliberately non-descript bikes.
The J C Decaux models will be a new challenge to the species of welfare cretins that considers the successful vandalising small trees to be an achievement.
What really bugs me is the sanctimonious attitude of DCC when dealing with applications for (appropriately scaled) advertising on behalf of clients. They seem to have a very strict policy for ‘outsiders’.
Do as I say….:mad:
hutton wrote:According to Cllr Emer Costello (Lab) the metropoles are “incredibly ugly, obscene and distracting structuresâ€.
“They are a hindrance to the blind, to people with buggies or wheelchairs and to drivers,†she told Northside People.Ms Costello will get her chance in due course, I presume. Anyone got info on the long awaited city advertising strategy – promised in the 2005 Development Plan ? (bootleg copies gratefully accepted) 😀
@johnglas wrote:
Ah, the beautiful game! Even the stadium is beautiful! (cf. Cabaret)
But where are the wirgens?
QUOTE=publicrealm;
Incidentally, the modest amendment application mentioned by Altotude had a hidden element – the removal of one of the old (100 years?) trees on the pavement outside the site. This was very carefully hidden and every drawing and cgi coincidentally erred in not showing it.QUOTE]
Sadly, I noted damage to a different tree on the footpath this am.
Caused by the contractors laying the tarmacadam driveway into the house. Tree is probably a contemporary of that proposed for removal (by the applicant – i.e. about/more than 100 years old).
I don’t know if the damage is life threatening?
I think I have attached a poorish photo taken early this morning? 😮
Agreed Jimg.
Such a pity really. The illegally demolished house had a trillion times more character and yet had the modesty and confidence to blend into its context.
The current pallatzo appropriates the view and jumps up and down on a bouncy castle. I suspect that the owner and the property are perfectly matched however. (Personally, I would be ashamed to be seen on the enormous balcony which dominates the view towards Palmerson Park.)
Incidentally, the modest amendment application mentioned by Altotude had a hidden element – the removal of one of the old (100 years?) tress on the pavement outside the site. This was very carefully hidden and every drawing and cgi coincidentally erred in not showing it.
Refused by DCC and currently overdue from the Board (1st Party appeal) (Reg Ref 5183/06, PL29S.220979).
I hope someone will invest in the area in the near future – however the omens appear poor – the DCC permission for the current ESB building on Fleet Street (a gem) was appealed (by the Unionists alone) with the result that it may not now be worth building (and several floors of retail may be lost).
@PTB wrote:
What do these metropoles look like? Are they like the revolving sign outside Scotland Yard?
Naw – you’r getting it mixed up with the Metropoletan Polece Pole.
s’elementary really.
@Ciaran wrote:
That’s so pathetic that I had to check and see if it was April fools day:( Terrible.
I noted at the weekend that the road at Stephens Street Upper (adjacent the recently removed granite footpath paving area) was being resurfaced and the top layer had been stripped off in readiness.
This exposed a very substantial area of well laid and very attractive stone sets, laid diagonally and interwoven with a concrete surface.
Don’t know when they date from and I didn’t have a camera – so they are now reburied under new tarmac for another 100 years.
I suppose we should be grateful that they are still there :confused:
@sw101 wrote:
who designed it?
Quote =Funny how, after redevelopment, this thread title still applies. What are the planners at …Quote
A planner – obviously. High time we employed architects to design buildings instead.
@Frank Taylor wrote:
It’s a real company, complete with god-awful architect’s web site
http://www.go2wasa.com/
triumph of form over functionWow. A pretty pious practice. Wouldn’t last long in the Irish market.
@sw101 wrote:
you’re famous, graham
I presume the quote from ‘Wank, Adams, Slavin’ is a typo? Unreal is right 😀
@GrahamH wrote:
Why does this anti-social issue keep cropping up here in relation to public seating? It’s got absolutely nothing got to do with it – certainly not on our principal streets. Why would an ‘anti-social element’ suddenly be attracted to seating on a busy public thoroughfare? ]
Why indeed? Al fresco beer drinking is a good deal cheaper than drinking in pubs.
After I spoke to the lady re. seating and the elderly I went and watched Wolfe Tone Square on a Saturday afternoon. Pretty intimidating I would say: the Abbey Street end was colonised by male beer drinkers and several of the middle benches were occupied by their formidable ladies (and offspring).
I can understand why an elderly person might feel uncomfortable. Naturally I deplore this and we should encourage the elderly to have a more enlightened and inclusive attitude – but in the meantime (something they do not have a lot of) I would like to provide some more benches – and police them appropriately.
Not really a ‘big ask’ as the neighbours say?
@Alek Smart wrote:
Publicrealm I see where you are……
It`s in the “Old” Ireland :rolleyes:
The Ireland of “Come all ye`s” and “Ah sure what`s your hurry”,and that Ireland was no bad place for much of the time.However those very individuals for whom you so elequently plead were to be found in the vanguard of the NEW Ireland.
These very highly placed Administrators were the ones telling us very forcibly that we now had a NEW vision of Ireland to encompass and nowhere was this message pushed home with such fervour as with the O Connell St IAP and more particularly The Tower of Light project.Well I think you got me in one Alek! I am from the (relatively) old world. But I hope not to have to retreat to the ‘Cone of Silence’ for a while yet.
I do understand and share the frustration with the many missed opportunities, lousy planning decisions, and general neglect of the public realm. But I am cursed (Cursed I tell ye) with a sense of balance which makes me reluctant to expect overworked public servants to deliver beyond their reasonable capacity.
I’m very open to correction here because my only experience of DCC is with Planners and those generally at a senior level. The ones I know are severely overworked and perform minor miracles on a regular basis.
Maybe they have nothing to do with the dreadful treatment of the streetscape or its reinstatement – I just don’t know. I do agree it is endlessly depressing. Why don’t we put together a pamplet on the rape of historic pavements – maybe include the Spire and similar examples as well – and present it to DCC with a request for more focus – I think it might get better results than whining on this forum? (And I’m a well known whiner myself – so this is aimed at me too.)
Bigger Fish? Have you got a week?
Sat night I attended a nice middle class concert in the city. Afterwards I spoke to a nice lady who coordinates services for the elderly in need on the northside of the City. She told me there are NO toilets or benches between O’Connell Street and Capel Street for these people to use. I referred to Wolfe Tone Square and she pointed out that it was great for older folk when it was new but they are now afraid to use it as it has become an anti-social hangout for louts and druggies. I was really ashamed that this planning neglect of the elderly had to be pointed out to me.
The issue seriously upsets me. The people who need these facilities are marginalised at many levels and all of our academic training as planners (sorry – I know this is an Architectural forum) demands our attention to this. I would honestly trade the granite paving.
In planning terms this is just one bigger fish imho (only us ‘refined’ weirdos notice paving stones – lovely for us of course).
I’m sure I can list a dozen more, which I presume are competing for scarce attention in DCC. I know where I would put the resources. Of course, in this case it appears bugger-all is being done for the elderly in terms of street furniture, so it probably isn’t competing.:(
@JoePublic wrote:
Management skills at DCC seem to be … lacking. The crane was removed last Monday, why wasn’t the lighting department in on Tuesday restoring the lamposts? Was a plan put in place to deal with what would replace the trees, or is the plan just to do nothing and leave six holes of earth in the ground? If there is a plan, what are they waiting for?
Is there someone at DCC it would be worth complaining to?
Jaysus lads, – yer all very critical!
Give the poor buggers a week or two – they have bigger fish to fry. I know that I have complained about paving etc in the past but I continue to have faith in DCC (apart from the enforcement section – and even that is down to resource issues I suspect).
I’m sure some of them read this forum and they must find it pretty demotivating.
What I find disappointing about the Spire is the streak of discolouration – that won’t be solved by planting a few trees? Is it due to unequal exposure to sun?
@altotude wrote:
Still not up but if you search on the Dublin City Planning records it says the appeal decision was to grant permission!!
Yes – granted – an interesting decision. http://www.pleanala.ie/REP/220/R220979.DOC
The Inspector considered the DCC permission invalid due to the unauthorised works but felt the Board had no power to refuse on this ground.
Seems to open up interesting possibilities for circumventing the planning system. Not a good precedent from ABP or DCC in my view.
Sue wrote:“The dog was amazing. It was in perfect condition and had been very
carefully buried]God what a bore that guy is. 6 inches? Clearly it was not a dog. It was even more significant:
The tribe Smilodontini contains the most well-known of the sabre-toothed cats, Smilodon. This genus, which is comprised of three known species, was widespread throughout the Americas, and existed during the late Pleistocene (1.5 mya – 10,000 years ago). Smilodon was a stocky cat, with short, powerful legs, and had a bobtail. Their canine teeth were the longest of all the true sabre-toothed cats, being about 7″ long (exposed length).
As Vincent Browne (a marginally more intelligent Vincent) would say “this is hugely significant”. The site clearly predates the Tara upstarts by maybe a million years.
Work must cease immediately. Incontrovertible evidence of the long lost landbridge between the old and new worlds.:D
@Paul Clerkin wrote:
House on Sorrento Road near junction with Vico Road….
I assume it is a single house and not apartments…
Any details….
Architects?I doubt that there were architects involved. It really is too ridiculous looking to have been designed by a professional.
Unless you believe that ridiculous = avant garde = good?
@GregF wrote:
Thats good news. Will they ever just get on with building the thing. However, I wouldn’t say the Bertie Bowl was totally dead. There is some sort of a sports campus scheme planned for the Abbotstown site, and a stadium is part of the proposal, but a scaled down version. The FAI plan to move it’s HQ out here. With the Olympics planned for London in 2012, we expect to cash in on it, ie training facilities etc… An opportunity not to be missed.
( I bet too that the Abbotstown stadium will be of an adequate size, once the new Lansdowne Road stadium is up and running.)They have started! 😀 😀 😀 😀
@PVC King wrote:
http://www.fiannafail.ie/person.php4?pid=214&show=Councillor
That says it all
I suppose we are getting a little off topic and political here. However, I expect nothing from Councillors and am never disappointed.
What does annoy me is the shock horror antics of same (and their masters) when the inevitable chicken (with salmonella) comes home to roost. For example the recent contamination of drinking water and seawater exposed by the EPA.
Who is to blame? THEM up above in DUBLIN – i.e. the administration and (as always) the Planners.
This despite the repeated advice from Planners that perticular Section 140 motions, or frequently insane rezonings, will lead precisely to this dilemma. All they care about is local favour. Nothing else.
I have said it before – the situation is out of control and beyond remedy and many decent and competent local authority planners have given up the struggle in the face of continued political sabotage.
I would consider voting Green except I am old enough to remember the bad economic times and (selfishly) want to keep my head above the water financially for another while (cue to joke about Global Warming).
@PVC King wrote:
The commission also found that Mayor of Killarney Sheila Casey, Fine Gael Councillor, did not breach the Local Government Act because she may not have had knowledge that, as an employee of the O’Donoghue family, she had a beneficial interest in the motion to rezone the lands.
Ah shur God bless the Blueshirts – they just haven’t a clue about this plannin stuff – unlike the cute FF hoors.
Poor oul Ml Lowrey was even kept in the dark by his civil servants. He had no idea he needed planning permission.
Innocents abroad.
